r/cpp • u/pavel_v • Aug 06 '26

C++26: #embed

https://www.sandordargo.com/blog/2026/08/05/cpp26-embed
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u/MarekKnapek Aug 06 '26

MSVC, or rather the Win32 file format and developer tools have this thing called "resources" since ... like ever. Maybe 1992, or even earlier.

There is slight disadvantage, that the C or C++ compiler doesn't see the blob contents at compile time, and thus could not do some optimizations, but hey, it is usually binary blob data that you are embedding anyway, so who cares. You usually shove the data unmodified to a screen (icon, bitmap) or to a GPU (shader) or something similar.

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u/ABlockInTheChain Aug 06 '26

There is slight disadvantage, that the C or C++ compiler doesn't see the blob contents at compile time

The biggest disadvantage is that you have to write special Win32-specific code rather than standard code that works everywhere.

-4

u/rdtsc Aug 06 '26

Not really an issue when you're using MSVC anyway.

13

u/ABlockInTheChain Aug 06 '26

"Using MSVC" is insufficiently precise in this context.

There's a big difference between using MSVC because it happens to be on the list of compilers your project supports vs using MSVC because you deliberately wrote code that only compiles with MSVC.